VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
—Proshow Broadcast provides mobile production
facilities for coverage of sporting
and other events. We recently enlarged our
vehicle fleet with the addition of “Maestro,”
a 40-foot HD truck that’s based in the Pacific
Northwest and is used for NCAA sports, MLS
Soccer, NBA, NHL and a variety of entertainment
and corporate events. The predominant
monitors in this new truck are from
Marshall Electronics.

The largest Marshall installation in the
truck is the main production monitor wall.
These walls are often the biggest “wow
factor” in a truck and this all-Marshall wall
doesn’t disappoint. It’s anchored by three
Marshall V-R371-IMD 37-inch displays, with
each having a 10-input multiviewer feeding
it to provide the director and producer with
the 30 principal camera and tape sources.

In addition, there are 10 Marshall VP-
201TE 20-inch units for preset/preview/
program and other full screen and quad-split
viewing. We also have six Marshall
V-R171-IMD 17-inch monitors in both quad
and non-quad versions located in front of
the technical director/video switcher position.
These units offer a DVI input in addition
to the four BNCs, making them perfect
for displaying an EVS Spotbox desktop.

The other “all Marshall” wall in the truck
is at the EVS bench for displaying the EVS
server desktops, as well as all of the EVS I/O
and any other source required by replay operators.

FULLY FEATURED MONITORS
WITH AN EASY BOTTOM LINE
One of the many reasons we chose Marshall
monitors is their price to features/performance
balance. Marshall has managed to
hit a practical price, while at the same time
offering you a truly professional product.

This starts with a proper metal enclosure
that’s easy to mount, with the VP-201 “truck
edition” monitor being a good example. Marshall
supplies their proprietary rackmount
for this monitor. It’s equipped with slides
that allow you to place a 20-inch diagonal
monitor in a 19-inch rack space. And the
slide system gives you easy access to wiring
and menu controls from the front of the rack.
This is a truly smart design and demonstrates
that Marshall is in touch with the industry
for which they’re building products.

Next on the list is a proper HD-SDI BNC
input. HDMI inputs are cheap and plentiful
on many monitors, but they’re very difficult
to deal with in a truck installation and
usually require the use of additional external
conversion devices that add cost and
reduce reliability. All of the Marshall monitors
have loop-through BNC inputs.

NO UMD SYSTEM NEEDED HERE
The Marshall monitors also feature a
unique IMD (in-monitor display). With this
built in, there’s no need for a separate UMD
(under monitor display) system that would
add significant cost and occupy additional
rack space.

A simple RS-422 looping connection
ties every monitor back to our truck engineer’s
computer, eliminating the need for
a bulky data router or homerun wiring. A
simple software program can rename every
source in every monitor in the truck
in just moments, providing us with a huge
productivity boost on busy set-up days.

Thanks in part to Marshall Electronics,
we’re able to deliver industry-leading broadcasters
and producers the high-quality facilities
they need at a practical price with
our new Maestro mobile production facility.

Tim Lewis is the president and founder
of Proshow Broadcast and has been in
live production for 30 years. He may be
contacted at timlewis@proshow.com.